Style

Point of View

The novel is written in the first-person point of view. The narrator of this novel is Moon Shadow, a young Tang boy who immigrates to America and learns what it means not only to be a member of the Tang community, but to embrace the diversity of all those around him. Moon Shadow tells his story from the time he is eight until he is fifteen, but the reader gets the impression from certain statements Moon Shadow makes within the narration that he is telling the story from some point later in life, perhaps in adulthood.

The point of view of this novel is not unusual in modern bestselling fiction. The use of first person point of view is often limiting to the author, restricting the writer to events that only one character can see, touch, and feel. However, the author of this novel uses...